


Meet <3 Awkward

by shrill_fangirl_screaming



Series: all the stony au oneshots [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: AU, M/M, Non-power AU, accidental meeting au, awkward meeting au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 17:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1866105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrill_fangirl_screaming/pseuds/shrill_fangirl_screaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is your average, everyday, run-of-the-mill billionaire, and all he wants to do is get off that godforsaken PUBLIC air plane to his nice mansion. Maybe he should have slowed down a little... oops.</p><p>Previous title: Oops. It sucked. I changed it.</p><p>(does not need to be read in conjunction with the rest of the series)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet <3 Awkward

In Tony’s defense, Pepper normally took care of this sort of thing. Plus, he didn’t fly… public. With all the people who weren’t him, without strippers and nice booze and comfortable chairs. But when you’re stuck in California with a broken jet trying to get to New York in time for a business meeting, sometimes sacrifices must be made.

He called Pepper the second he realized his private jet was out of commission, and within ten minutes he had a first-class seat on the next flight from California to New York. First class, however, still wasn’t private. He had to check his luggage and sit near people and drink cheap alcohol.

It was torture.

So he got the hell off that plane as fast as he could, grabbed the black suitcase with the red ribbon around it Pepper told him to look for, and threw himself into the waiting Stark limousine.

(He was still late to his business meeting. No one was surprised).

When he got home, his luggage was sitting neatly in the middle of his room, waiting for him. Ever since he and Pepper had broken up she’d started to make boundaries, boundaries like this one. She’d help him pack for a trip, but not unpack.

And, when he’s feeling tolerant and introspective, he understands.

Right now? He wishes his clothes were already put away and his toiletries were already put on his counter and his nice boxers already put on his bed to sleep in.

With a sigh, Tony hoisted the suitcase onto his bed and unzipped it, rubbing sleep from his eyes with one hand and shoving the other into the case without thinking.

It hit something hard.

Tony glared down at the contents of the suitcase with anger. He didn’t remember packing anything hard, but he was also pretty drunk still when he packed it back in Cali. He shifted aside the t-shirts covering the hard object and pulled it out, staring at it in consternation.

It was a pencil case. A really nice pencil case with the initials “SGR” carved onto it in calligraphy.

He must’ve been drunker than he thought when he packed this.

Then a few neurons in his brain got firing and he realized- this wasn’t his stuff. Most of this was a few sizes too big, anyway. 

Tony shut the case again and fumbled around for identifying markers. Black, yes. Red ribbon, yes. Attached business card… no. 

Fuck.

He got the wrong luggage.

That might have been why his phone kept buzzing angrily through his meeting. Yep, that’s probably why. Dammit.

He pulled out his phone and yes, that’s some ten missed calls from the same unknown number. He hit “call back” without really thinking about it.

“Hello?” the voice on the other side answered groggily.

Tony looked at the clock. 1:15 AM. Shit. “Sorry, sorry, didn’t realize it was this late, sorry,” he said into the phone hurriedly, “I just think you have my luggage.”

Pause. “You’re the luggage guy,” the other side said.

“I think so. Yes. Sorry. Black suitcase, red ribbon?”

There were a few shuffling noises on the other end of the line. “Yeah, yeah, that’s me. I’m, uh, Steve. Sorry to, um, take your stuff.”

“I’m pretty sure I stole yours first,” Tony replied. “Is there any chance you can drop my stuff off tomorrow?”

“Where?” Steve asked.

Tony thought he must be joking. “I’m Tony Stark. Generally, the giant tower with my name on it might be a good place to start.”

Long pause. “I have Tony Stark’s luggage?”

“Yep.”

Upon reflection, maybe “You know who I am” instead of his name on his business card wasn’t the greatest idea. 

“Crap,” Steve breathed into his phone. “Crap, I’m so so sorry, Mr. Stark, I’m sorry, I’ll get it to you right now, let me find a taxi-“

Tony interrupted, “It’s okay. Wait, taxi?”

“Yeah, I use, um, mostly the subway, you know, I don’t have a car, it’s fine, I can get a taxi-“

“No,” Tony said. “No. I’ll get your stuff to you, shit, I have, like, a limo and a chauffeur, where are you?”

As he was talking, he idly picked through the man’s belongings. That was probably a bad thing, Tony thought as he unearthed a sketchbook, but he didn’t really care. He was Tony Goddamn Stark. 

He opened the book as Steve gave an address out in Brooklyn, but he stopped listening with the first sketch on the page. It was good- astonishing, even. A cityscape of the New York skyline. As he flipped through, familiar things caught his eye- the Empire State, a Malibu skyline, his Tower.

Cityscape, cityscape, cityscape, portrait- portrait?

Tony’s hands stilled over the portrait, because it was clearly of him. Probably from the news, with that kind of smile. The color choice was interesting- red and gold, rich colors but not ones typically associated with him.

“Actually, strike that,” Tony said into the phone. “I’m taking you for coffee. We can trade back there. Sound good?”

There was a pause on the other side, then a laugh, then, “Sure. Coffee.”

“There’s a place two blocks south of the Tower. See you there tomorrow, around nine?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll see you then.”

 

Sure enough, the next morning, Tony caught up with the mysterious, luggage-stealing artist. He was gorgeous and gallant and a little bit goofy, and Tony knew this was a great idea.

This will be a great story to tell the kids, he thought as he sipped his coffee across from Steven Grant Rogers. 

And it was.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a tumblr post listing increasingly awkward ways to meet another person as AUs for fanfic. The post was mostly written by camillamacaulayy in case anyone really cares where this idea came from. I saw the post, thought "ah yes perfect stony" and then wrote this.


End file.
